1 of 2 | President Joe Biden, shown Tuesday, announced Wednesday that the United States would impose sanctions on the company that built the Nord Stream 2 natural gas pipeline in response to Russia's aggression in Ukraine. Photo by Bonnie Cash/UPI |
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Feb. 23 (UPI) -- The United States will impose sanctions on the company behind the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline and its chief executive in response to Russia's escalating aggression in Ukraine, President Joe Biden announced Wednesday.
The pipeline, intended to ferry natural gas from Russia to Germany under the Baltic Sea, was completed in September but awaits final certification from German regulators. It's owned by Swiss firm Nord Stream 2 AG, whose parent company is the massive Russian energy corporation Gazprom.
The sanctions also hit the company's chief executive officer, Matthias Warning.
Biden's announcement was the latest in a series of economic penalties levied at Russia by the United States and its allies as Russian President Vladimir Putin continues to mobilize troops in eastern Ukraine.
"These steps are another piece of our initial tranche of sanctions in response to Russia's actions in Ukraine. As I have made clear, we will not hesitate to take further steps if Russia continues to escalate," Biden said in a media release.
"Through his actions, President Putin has provided the world with an overwhelming incentive to move away from Russian gas and to other forms of energy."
The move came a day after German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said his nation would halt the approval process of the pipeline, which cost more than $11 billion to complete.
Scholz has defended the project for months as his nation faces an energy crisis, but he said in a press conference that the time had come to "reassess this dramatically altered situation."
"Without this certification, Nord Stream 2 can't go into operation," he said.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken applauded Germany's decision on Wednesday, stating that following consultations with Berlin and the EU he has terminated a waiver put in place last spring to protect Nord Stream 2 AG and Warning, as well as other corporate officers, from sanctions.
In May, Blinken had told Congress in a report that both Warning and Nord Stream 2 AG had knowingly facilitated deceptive practices to provide a pipe-laying vessel for the construction of the line, but they were waived from sanctions in order for Germany to assess the situation.
Following Russia's actions, those waivers have been rescinded, he said, freezing all their property and assets within the United States.
"Russia's flagrant disregard for international law in repeatedly invading Ukraine's sovereign territory demands a firm response from the international community," the United States' top diplomat said in a statement.
In an interview with CNN Wednesday, Latvian Prime Minister Arturs Krišjānis Kariņš said Germany's decision to rescind the pipeline's national security waiver functionally kills the project.
"What we're seeing now is the first wave of sanctions. So Putin moves military units into Ukraine, the democratic world responds immediately, within one day, and across all the time zones, with coordinated and very deep sanctions," Kariņš said.
"If there would be more moves, there would be more sanctions, and they will only be cutting deeper and deeper."
